ATTIC FLOOR

This small, low-growing plant, also known as Dwarf Dogwood (Cornus canadensis), adds so much beauty to the forest floor. The plant's single white flower is delightful and when fall is just around the corner, the very tiny, red berries add lots of colour. Photographed (macro) yesterday when I went to Brown-Lowery Provincial Park for the afternoon in the hopes of finding mushrooms everywhere - yeah, right, lol! I did manage to find a few, some photogenic and others definitely not, but nothing like the abundance of the last two or three years. I'm laughing now, but I wasn't laughing just before I entered the the forest. There was a blood-curdling scream way in the distance that stopped me in my tracks. I had visions of someone (the only other car in the parking lot had left just as I was arriving, but maybe they had dropped someone off for a hike) being attacked by a Bear or Cougar. Did I really want to continue??? I can tell you, I almost turned around and went straight back to my car, ha! However, I very cautiously kept going - this place gives me the creeps, as it is, every time I go there, especially when I'm on my own. Maybe 15 minutes later, another scream and then another a short while later. And THEN I realized that maybe this is some kind of machinery, but unlike anything I had ever heard before. No idea if it was from within the forest or maybe from a nearby farm - from time to time, someone does go in there to cut up trees that have blown down across the trail. These trunk pieces are always left to rot there at the side of the path, to give wonderful protection to small creatures of the forest.

Yesterday, I picked up the estimate for building a ground-level, cedar deck to cover the whole of my tiny 16'x18' backyard. It is on a bit of an incline, so that would give extra work of course, plus the plants/shrubs in my two small borders would have to be removed first. However, almost $10,000!! So, I am back to square one again - just as I am with the sale of my brother's house in England, when the buyer backed out a few months after putting in his original offer. The only reason I thought about a wooden ground-level deck was that I had been unable to find anyone who would come and remove all plants/shrubs and put down netting and wood chips, as I just can't cope with a garden, even a small one. It seems no one wants a one-time-only piece of work - they all seem to want a job that is weekly or at least monthly ... sigh.

...read all about it! Woody was found dead last night in a local warehouse. Although suicide has been ruled out, little is known about possible motivaton for such heinous act. Sources say it looks to be a 3/16" wound similar to those found in the gangland slaying last month.

Active Assignment Weekly July 26 - August 2 Crime Scene

The assignment this week requires a bit of role playing. Imagine yourself as a photographer working for a big city newspaper. It's 1940. You're out there on the street with your 4x5 Speed Graphic and your mission is to capture a juicy shot that will sell papers.

You know the type of shot I'm talking about. High contrast, black and white. Show me the naked underbelly of this city. A local hodlum sitting on a bench at the neighborhood precinct house trying to cover his face so his mom won't see his mug on the front page. The chalk outline and blood stains left on the sidewalk after a murder investigation. Some poor dame holding a bandage on her forehead 'cause her drunk husband smashed up the family car. We want a splashy front page shot that will make our rag fly of the news stands.

WIT: First things first. I did not drill a hole into Woody for the assignment...he is fine. I first found a small block of wood that was about as thick as Woody and drilled a couple of holes in it so I could have the shavings and a hole. Next, I laid Woody out on the garage floor in the pose shown and found some sidewalk chalk to outline his body and then sprinkled some of the shavings over his torso area. I moved some of the shavings away from where the hole would later be shown. I took a photo of this scene with a flash bouncing off a positioned white garbage can. Next I put Woody aside and placed the block of wood with the hole where his torso was and took a second picture. I photoshop elements, I took a small portion of the wood block image and merged it with Woody's photo to make it look like he had been drilled. I messed around with some processing that included a Lomo effect action and conversion to b&w to fit the assignment description.